Henry Saunders (Gorkas Jorikson)
Henry Saunders, '''also known as Gorkas Jorikson,''' is an ex Temple Knight character and current freelance Saradominist preacher and monster hunter played by CuddlyCarter in World 42 Public and Private role-play. He is a male human around the age of 46, and follows the saradominist religion. Anybody wishing to set up role-play with Gorkas Jorikson for any reason can contact CuddlyCarter through his talk page on this website. Biography Childhood Gorkas Jorikson was born in Relleka to a woodsman named Jorik and his wife, a fisherwoman named Guthrid. From a fairly young age, around six years, his father would bring him out of the town and teach him how to survive in the wilds, and from seven he was taught to fish by his mother. Gorkas' grandfather, an old warrior named Harkan, began to teach the boy how to use a bow and sword at the age of ten, under a constant barrage of brutal begging. At the age of fourteen, Gorkas attended the funeral of his grandfather, Harkan, who had died at the club of a troll while visiting Neitiznot. He continued his swordsmanship lessons with other men throughout the tribe, and was generally recognized as a competent swordsman and archer. After his trials were through, and after his sixteenth birthday, Gorkas took to wandering, using the skills that his father and mother taught him to survive, and the skills his grandfather and the other men of the village taught him in order to fend off wild beasts and bandits. Life as a Wanderer He soon knew Kandarin and the Fremmennik province like the back of his hand, and took to guiding those that needed guiding for the extra money. Eventually, he ended up guiding a man who was an undercover temple knight (though Gorkas didn't know it at the time) to the town of Witchhaven. On the way to Witchhaven, the two were ambushed by a small group of bandits, whom were quickly taken care of by the Temple Knight and the Fremmennik. Impressed, the temple knight wrote down the name and location of the white knights' recruitment officers on a scrap of parchment and told Gorkas to go to Falador and join the knights. Gorkas cracked a bad joke and wandered away. Wondering for the first time what was east of the white wolf mountains, but not wanting to actually cross the mountains, he boarded a boat on it's way to Karamja island. (Un?)fortunately, the boat was caught in a storm and wrecked on the way. On Entrana Gorkas and the rest of the shipwreck's survivors found themselves on Entrana, and he felt a peace like none he'd ever felt before there. Suddenly curious about Saradomin and the southerners' gods like he'd never been before, he began to frantically study the pages of the book of Saradomin given to him by a particularly friendly monk, and lived among the monks for almost a year. Eventually, however, he was kicked off of the island, the monks saying "Saradomin is no laughing matter, young man!" with his sword, his book, and his bow with nowhere at all to go. scratching his outer thigh under his leather chaps thoughtfully, he dislodged a scrap of parchment - the very same one that the man had given to him a year before, somehow surviving the shipwreck and a year of sitting in his weapon and armor chest under the monks' lock and key. The Temple Knights Order 171 He went to Falador and joined the white knights, seeing the parchment's survival as a sign from Saradomin, and quickly ingratiated himself into the order. A few years and several skirmishes against minor orders of Kinshra later, Gorkas was inducted into the temple knights, for his dedication to Saradomin didn't go unnoticed. After almost six years in the temple knights, serving Saradomin and thwarting Zamorakianism in all it's forms, he was picked to be on Hayley Spears' elite team, the Order 171 Temple Knights unit, where he was given the alias of Henry Saunders, which he is known by by all but a very few who know his real name, which has actually become his callsign. Malazshar the Mad After a particularly bad time rescuing Captain Spears from a yet unidentified assailant (as far as Gorkas is concerned, at least) and a vampire (who seemed to just happen to be there) which skewered Gorkas with spikes of his own blood, he decided that he needed better armor and weapons, and sought out a mage to whom one of his contacts, a sailor woman named Lilian, directed him - Malazshar the mad. Malazshar blessed Gorkas' sword after reforging it in silver, putting a ruby into the pommel and enchanting it as well to deliver even heftier blows in his experienced hands. He also took Gorkas' temple knight armor and embedded a complicated system of enchanted sapphires and emeralds into the underside of the plate layer, over the chainmail layer, so that the armor would be slightly more durable in general, would repair itself to perfection over long periods of time (aprox 2 days), and so that when struck by magic, the magic is confined to a 2 inch square of the plate. Finally, the old wizard turned Gorkas into a cat, which he called "Puss-puss" Malazshar the mad ended up visiting Falador, where he was attacked, unprovoked, by a trio of "Good adventurers," and the legs wounds he sustained grew worse as he remembered that Gorkas was, in fact, a human being, and turned him back into his true form even as Malazshar was dying of infectious leg wounds. Gorkas buried the old man and said the last rites over his grave, and returned to the 171st's base only to find the order disbanded. Time as an Advisor Disheartened, he eventually ended up back in falador, serving the Commonwealth of Gielinor as an advisor, until the Commonwealth's collapse. SOD - E1X Later, Gorkas decided to join the new order of White Knights during The Reign of King Dion Magnan, and put his strategic skills to good use there. He left the white knights due to excessive political backstabbing, and joined Hayley Spears' new organization. Since joining SOD-E1X, he managed to secure the position of Captain; he was the second in command of the unit. During most of his time in the moment he was keeping a close eye on affairs in Mahjarrat-ruled Ardougne, and on news in Gielinor in general, though the somewhat sedentary lifestyle he was leading was fairly unsatisfying. Father James His last assignment assignment as a Temple Knight (assigned by himself and later signed off on by the commander, of course, being the egotistical bastard he is) ended up with his placement in the city of Ardougne, undercover as "Father James" the hooded monk, another alias which he came up with on the spot when questioned by a high ranking guardsman. "Father James" was apparently Fremennik born, ran into a group of traveling monks when he was young and desperate for food, and then eventually left Rellekka in order to learn more about Saradomin, spending a number of years on Entrana and then moving on to travel, spreading Saradomin's word. (His motto when telling stories? "If you're a good storyteller, you can just change the names and the same story will be new to them. Also, bullshit helps a lot.") Ten years Gorkas ended up getting on the bad side of a vampyre during an independent investigation into disappearances in Draynor Village. The vampyre captured Gorkas and killed the rest of the hostages, including his best friend - an informant that he had been working on the case with - before he was able to escape. Enraged, Gorkas pursued the vampyre across Gielinor. As it was midway back across the Salve (Having finished the requisite ritual), Gorkas caught it unaware and tackled the creature into the river, submerging the two of them. He washed up somewhere in the marshlands of Morytania. Drenched and having almost drowned in the River Salve, he was pleasantly surprised to find the aches and pains of years of knighthood had disappeared. He worked his way back to the temple on the Salve, miraculously emerging unwounded from the swamps of Mort Myre. Finally, he managed to return to the Fremmennik province for some leave from Temple Knight duty. Fascinated by stories of Daemonheim, he traveled north to the island and spent a month studying it, the lore around it, and the events surrounding it. He fell into a hole while distracted, though Gorkas would argue that he was pushed. He found that he had landed deep within the dungeons of Daemonheim and spent ten years fighting through the dungeon before he found his way out. He managed to effectively master stealth, survival, and combat against the deadly denizens of Daemonheim. Against all odds, he clawed his way out through the front doors - and found that no time had passed in the outside world while he was trapped underground. That day he handed in his resignation letter to the Temple Knights and fell off the grid, ready to act as a contact and informant for the Temple Knights, the White Knights, and any other Saradominist group fighting against the forces of Zamorak. His real job as an independent monster hunter was, of course, just beginning. Appearance * Gorkas' face is fairly sturdy in contrast with his body, and he definately looks like a man from the cold north, aside from the well-trimmed-ness of his beard and moustache. His graying blonde hair hangs down shaggily from his head, and a scar bolts down for about one and a half inches from the outside corner of his left eye. *Gorkas' body has evolved to the muscular, stocky body type of a seasoned Fremmennik warrior. There are three round scars on his torso, roughly the size of a fist, and one on each leg just above the knees. Personality Gorkas has retained his ability to tell (bad) jokes in any situation, but has more than given up his reason to his hatred of Zamorak and other dark gods (Bandos and Zaros, though he hardly knows what these are...). Further, he gained quite a massive chip on his shoulder from his time in the 171st, and hates taking orders from people not directly above him in the chain of command, doubly so if the one giving orders is non-Fremmennik (as he's a bit racist). Gorkas doesn't believe that it's possible for there to be non-Zamorakian Vampyres or werewolves, and thinks that Bandos and Zaros are effectively just synonyms for Zamorak. He only knows about the Mahjarrat from Malazshar's mad stories Psychology *Gorkas is torn between his identity as a Fremennik and as a Saradominist. He often feels 'dirty' for being born and raised with the gods worshiped by the Fremennik instead of Saradomin, and thus feels as though he must prove his faith doubly to Saradomin and to himself. Religions These are his feelings toward the major religions: *Saradominism: Faithful, Saradominists are friends. *Guthixianism: Ha ha, look, hippies! *Zamorakianism: Ew Zamorak. Kill it. *Zarosianism: What's a Zaros? I hear it's evil. Kill it. (Minor knowledge from IC investigations) *Bandosianism: What's a Bandos? I hear it's evil. Kill it. *Armadylanism: What do armadillos have to do with this? *Menaphite pantheon: Cats lolwut? Abilities Gorkas is highly talented and trained (where applicable) in: *Longsword fighting *Stave fighting *Espionage *Diplomacy *Tactics *Storytelling *Writing and Speaking *Enchanting He's also trained, though less skilled, in: *Crossbow use *Shortbow use Trivia *Gorkas has committed so entirely to the role of "Henry Saunders the storyteller" that his real name is used almost exclusively as a callsign *Thanks to his time with Malazshar, Gorkas has an unusual affinity for cats. *Gorkas' accent is fremmennik with a hearty tempering of Asgarnian politesse. *During his trip to Malazshar the Mad's home, his sword and dagger were silvered and enchanted, with rubies actually melted into knot designs from the blade down into the hilt and enchanted. His temple knight armor was similarly reforged with silver, and the old mad mage divided the underside of the armor into 1cm2 squares with similarly enchanted and utilized gemstones. When they are the target of hostile or damaging magics, these squares leap out of the armor and intercept the spell, leaving the gem-web unharmed and preventing the channeling of magics from affecting Gorkas' body. Furthermore, the resultant mass of twisted metal continues along the paths that the magic attack had traveled along, assuming it was launched as a missile, giving the mage something to think about. The fallen and melted squares regrow as though alive at a rate of 2 squares/hour (This armor was lost during the daemonheim trip.) *During his time as a monster hunter, Gorkas generally carried his silvered-engraved, strength-enchanted, blessed longsword; ten silver engraved, accuracy-enchanted, blessed throwing knives; a crossbow with silver-tipped blessed bolts; two blessed silver holy symbols of Saradomin; a silver sickle; holy water; several regenerative and helpful potions; and a magic resistant shield. Category:Characters Category:Temple Knights Category:Saradominist Category:Fremennik Category:Humans Category:Protagonist Category:Entertainers Category:Knight Category:Military Category:Male